Morning journal and courier., 1887-04-09
UNITED SERVICES.
Fast Day Services Held at the United Church-Sermon by Rev. MT. Hun
 

Fast Day Services Held at the United
 Church-Sermon by Rev. MT. Hun
 gerfOrd.
 United services were held at the United
 church yesterday morning. The church was
 filled. The sermon was preached by Rev.
 MT. Hungerford of Adams, Mass. Being an
 excellent speaker MT. Hungerford was we'll
 able to hold the closest attention of his au-
 dience. It was an able sermon and it's sub
 feet was tThe Manhood of Christ" Mir.
 Hungerford took for his text the First Corin-
 thians, second chapter, second verse: "For determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and him crucifed." "America's great transcendental philoso- pher was sitting at the table of one of our ambassadors to the courts of Europe. A fippant young English representative of the then fashionable notion that the faith in Je- sus Christ already on the wane, was about to have it's light quenched in the glories of 8 new philosophy said: I suppose, MT. Elmer son, that you agree that the belief in Chris tianity is passing awaya Do you not think | the world is fast outgrowing it and that 1t will soon be gone?' The audacious rudeness | of the question was more than matched by | the penetration of the answer. My friend
 when the world shall have produced life more perfect than that of Jesus of Nazareth, it may then be said to have out
 grown Christianity am not aware that the | incident has ever been made public, but it
 reveals such insight into the sources of pow CT in Jesus and into the true grounds of faith
 as may, I trust, justify it's use at the opening of discourse designed to aid in the realiza- | tion of the significance of the day that com | memorates the crowning event in this divine | life.
 "In our text Paul emphasizes the course l he had pursued among the Corinthians. He | had found Corinth hard place in which to work. It was 8 commercial metropolis, a cosmopolitan center, where all nationalities came together, where chastity and, in gene l ral, morals were at low ebb. He went | thither with no personal advantage in his favor.
 'In relation to these crowds of merchants. clerks, shipmasters, sailors, artisans, truck men or porters, with here and there doc tor, lawyer a philosopher in relation to the men, women and children, native and foreign in Corinth, he stood as one stood who might visit Greece and proclaim himsef teacher. The cities of Greece were full of men who taught one or another form of philosophy, or of what went among them by the name of wisdom. In this wisdom, which embodied the results of human study and speculation, lay the recognized forces of in tellectual, moral and spiritual culture. The construction of manhood belonged in the main to the schools of philosophy, so far as it belonged to any distinct agency. Religion as popular force was sunk to low level. It l had helped to fill Greece with poetic images and togive direction to plastic art, but there was in it neither great intellectual, moral or spiritual uplift. Materialistie in all concep tions, it partook of materialistic gross ness The salvation which he offered looked toward the escape from physical ills or from other forms of divine judgment by expiatory offerings rather than to the eleva- tion of men to a heaven of social virtue whether on earth or in a future world. This inveserate tendency of all religions-a tend ency from which Christianity has by no means been able to free itself-Judaism had
 not escaped. It had wavered between the
 placation of God, or too often of the gods
 through bloody sacrifices, and the keeping of
 good reckoning with him by external ob- servaace, while the higher social virtues were
 violated and the conception of mankind
 resting in character ana salvation that con-
 sists in character failed to be clearly visioned
 by more than relatively few great souls
 gifted with fine spiritual perception. Much less was any such salvation to be expected from religions which admitted the basest of human passions and vices into the elysium of the gods. To wisdom, in the Grecian sense of the word was mainly remanded such work of manhood's refinement and elevation
 as could be said to have place in the Hellenic world.
 s'Paul came among this people, having his soul set aim which but dimly pervad- ed the minds of the heather philosophers. He came as @ builder up of men. He came as a teacher of salvation iE a larger and com plete sense. Escaped alike from the gross naIrowness of the heather idea of salvation and the only less narrow Judaistic idea of it, going far beyond the misty philosophic con- ception of it, he saw redemption of human ity through divine manifestation working on character as the sole complete salvation of Il, ind iuil no1 of fha vii idea, at the root of which lay faith as the opening of the soul, Jewish or heather, to divine inspiration, he went over the western world trying to save men. That work kin dled his zeal and sent him throughout heath endom blazing in it's moral wilderness those missionary paths which we to-day trace with so much wonderment. For this he stood in streets, market places, civil courts, theaters, setter forth of strange doctrines"
 Tie Greeks stood ready to hear the myste- ries Of creation, of existence, discussed. They
 revelled in metaphysical disquisition and
 augmentation. Paul was thoroughly equip
 ped in culture, ability and forensic power to cope with their ablest takers. The speaker finely described Paul's mental qualifications and the antecedents which fitted him far above the ordinary man for work of this character. Paul had to make a choice of weapons; he chose the simpl7 story of the
 cross so powerful in all ages, under all cir
 cumstances, among all nations, to satisfy the
 longings of the soul.
 Proceeding the speaker emphasized in
 glowing words the devotion of Paul, his
 simple reliance upon the power ot the theme,
 Chrst's life, example and mission, with which to break down the barriers of heather
 mythology and carry forward the banner of
 the gospel; and how Paul in giving battle employed his wealth of culture and knowl- edge as aids in the struggle. ''It is not
 true, said Dr. Hungarford, 'that the less man knows and the less he has of fine per ception the nearer he is to heaven. The more of intellectual discipline, insight, ,knowl- edge, delicate perception, the more likely, other things being equal, is one to be god ly man. Culture may be developed at the ex- pense of the heart But ignorance may we'll be the greatest obstacle to the spiritual progress of the race at large and as a whole Take men as they seem, take the world as it is, and the better the mind the better the heart. Look, and you shall find that the largest share of general culture, the
 largest share of intelligence, take the civilized world over, is on the side of Jesus of Naza- reth. As the world progresses in intellectual
 attainment it will proportionately progress in Christian growth. False conceptions of Christ and of religion will be sacrificed, some pet theologies have been sacrificed, others will be, exclusiveness and narrowness will be sacrificed, but the spirit of godliness will more and more join hands with the spirit of knowledge, and the man who knows will also
 be the man who believes. Of this fact every teacher must take account, unless he will build a church in ignorance and coarseness. Not to recognize it would be to put premi- um on nnarrow-mindedness and vulgarity. Return of the c. HI. Northam. The steamer C. IT Northam will take her